The car will have fender liners for sure. Things will of course get dirty, but I'm gonna need something to do when the car is built and I all I can do is clean it! The underside of the car is pretty dirty from being in the paint shop. I still need to finish cleaning that up.

The pictures do the powder coat no justice. It has a heavy metallic in it under the clear. Once the sun hits the parts, they sparkle like a disco ball. Should look really nice under the sun. I just didn't want the bling and maintenance of polished parts this time around.

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I agree! on mine i didnt want to do the all chrome & billet thing its been done enough times thats why i had intake & valvecovers powdercoated they were done almost five years ago still look same this is why u cant beat powdercoating. I have a Large star shape sparkle metallic in my coat if its like yours it looks great like a Christmas tree lights lol under street light or direct sunlight only problem when hood is up at shows sun angle hardly ever hits right on the difference is like a light switch on and off.

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Yea, she'll get some paint. I'm not touching the alternator tho. I don't feel like taking it all apart to make something silver a different shade of silver. I don't mind the bare aluminum OEM look anyways. I do wish I had a black water pump tho, but that one was a deal that I couldn't pass up.

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Quite the opposite Mike, unfortunately. Today was the first day in about two weeks that I had a chance to touch the car. Didn't really get a whole lot done either.

I cleaned up the driveshaft and got that installed. It's a tight fit with the IRS having a slightly more forward mounting position than the fixed axle. The yoke is right up against the tailshaft seal, but it should be okay. I still have to measure the pinion angle.

I also decided to go ahead and wrap the downpipe. It gets pretty close to a lot of things, so I'll feel better knowing it's wrapped. I'll eventually wind up wrapping the rest of the hotside as well sometime down the road.

The car is also on all four wheels for the first time in three years. The race ramps are really cool. They'll make it a lot easier to setup the suspension.

The only issue I noticed is that for the car to be close to proper ride height, the coil overs need to be so loose that when the car is elevated and the suspension in full droop, the coil overs have slack between the springs and the perches. I'm going to have to look into that, because it doesn't seem right to me.

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They make helper springs which are real thin spring material to keep the springs in contact with the perch. They dont ad much if anything to the spring rate itself, just enough to keep the springs from banging around when you jack the car up.

Don't know if the spring thing is right, but when I had my 300lb 12" springs on my UPR coilovers, they did the same thing. When I swapped to the 14" 175 lb coilovers, they never did it again.

BTW, this is my first post on this thread, but i have been drooling over it since the beginning. I know everyone has said it over and over, but you have done a great job with it. If you ever do sell it, someone is going to be wowed when they show up to test drive it.

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Don't know if the spring thing is right, but when I had my 300lb 12" springs on my UPR coilovers, they did the same thing. When I swapped to the 14" 175 lb coilovers, they never did it again.

BTW, this is my first post on this thread, but i have been drooling over it since the beginning. I know everyone has said it over and over, but you have done a great job with it. If you ever do sell it, someone is going to be wowed when they show up to test drive it.

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I am thinking the 8" 475lb rear and 10" 275lb front springs may have something to do with my issue. These sizes were recommended my MM for my strut/shock combo, so I'll have to give them a call. I'm not familiar enough with spring rate voodoo to figure it out myself. Luckily, the experts are only a phone call away.

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I just want to know how sad you are going to be when you drive through the first mud puddle. This things is along the lines of too clean to drive!

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I've come to terms with the fact that the car will get dirty and lots of time will be spent cleaning it. The thing I am most worried about is getting caught in a downpour on the highway. I'll hang be THAT guy hanging out with the bikers under the bridge until the storm passes.

SN Certified TechnicianMod Dude

I am thinking the 8" 475lb rear and 10" 275lb front springs may have something to do with my issue. These sizes were recommended my MM for my strut/shock combo, so I'll have to give them a call. I'm not familiar enough with spring rate voodoo to figure it out myself. Luckily, the experts are only a phone call away.

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OK,..I've gotta ask then. I assume that you are putting the heavy spring rates because you intend to road race/autocross the car?
That said,...the spring rates seem "1 ton truck" heavy compared to mine,...you are 100lbs heavier on the front springs than me. The rears,...well,.....you got that I.R.S. thingy back there,....I don't even know HOW to compare the spring coil rate to a coil over rate there. You are 350 lbs heaver than me there. I got 125's on back.
I know when my last car was set up for drag racing, and I put 175's on the back,..you couldn't bounce the rear by pushing on the trunk.

I don't get it. Seems like your car wont even move when you go over a bump.

OK,..I've gotta ask then. I assume that you are putting the heavy spring rates because you intend to road race/autocross the car?
That said,...the spring rates seem "1 ton truck" heavy compared to mine,...you are 100lbs heavier on the front springs than me. The rears,...well,.....you got that I.R.S. thingy back there,....I don't even know HOW to compare the spring coil rate to a coil over rate there. You are 350 lbs heaver than me there. I got 125's on back.
I know when my last car was set up for drag racing, and I put 175's on the back,..you couldn't bounce the rear by pushing on the trunk.

I don't get it. Seems like your car wont even move when you go over a bump.

(At the same time,..I revived your thread from 3 page back hell)

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With coil overs you run a much higher spring rate and have a ride better than a lower rate spring in the stock position. In this case the rates are even higher as the springs are shorter than what most people run.

The IRS requires much higher rate springs even in the stock location and much firmer dampers too. Both will likely be increased when going coil over.

The wheel rate is what matters more than the spring rate though. In this case, I think a longer spring with a lower rate would solve his problem. And I'm pretty sure he's already stated he wants it setup to handle really well, not necessarily for the drag strip.

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I'm with you Mike. The spring rates do seem high in the rear, but as bird-dog has mentioned, convention logic gets thrown out the window because of the IRS. The weight of the solid axle has no bearing on the rear springs, where as the IRS is now bolted to the frame, so you have an extra 90 lbs sitting on the rear springs. Although they are heavier, the Cobra guys tend to have 600lb + spring rates in the rear. The spring rates of the 00 Cobra R are 800 lbs . I doubt that is an enjoyable ride on the street though.

And yes, I do want the car to be geared towards handling. I doubt it will see a track though, but I do want to be able to dodge the random groundhog on the back country roads . I have an e-mail into MM asking them about the slop when the car is in full droop. I did re-read the instructions, and it does mention using a spanner wrench if you want to preload the spring. That makes me think spring preload isn't necessary. I'll just have to wait and see what they say.

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Finished up the hydroboost lines today. It was a bit of a pain to route the stainless lines. They are not swivel ends, so the fittings had to be exactly where I needed them before I tightened them down. Everything came out okay though. I can bleed the brakes out once I get the pedal box installed in the car.

I also finished up the exhaust. Everything bolted up surprisingly well. The downpipe is really close to the bellhousing and lower k-member mount, REALLY close. I was shaking the exhaust around a bit, and nothing was hitting, so I should be okay. The heat wrap should help as well hopefully.

Nothing looks better than those IRS pipes coming out the back of the car! I didn't buy the exhaust tips yet. I need to mock up the rear bumper and mount some hangers for the tips. Probably going Magnaflow 3" polished stainless with the slanted cut.